The confusion over the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a tournament that has made headlines ever since it was awarded to the Gulf state in 2010, continued on Wednesday. In a matter of hours, a senior official of soccer's governing body, FIFA, announced definitively that the tournament would be held in winter, only for FIFA to reply that nothing had been decided.

"It's not that it's possible. It's that it will be [in winter]," FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke told France Info radio. "Frankly, I think it will be played between Nov. 15 and Jan. 15 at the latest."

ENLARGE

The FIFA World Cup trophy
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The move away from a summer tournament in oppressively hot conditions has been expected for almost a year and has broad support inside FIFA's Executive Committee. But within hours of Valcke's comments, FIFA said that nothing had been decided yet. Though FIFA announced the creation of a task force to study the matter in October, it's unclear how many stakeholders have even been consulted yet.

"The precise event date is still subject to an ongoing consultation process which involves all main event stakeholders, including both the international football community (FIFA, confederations, member associations, leagues, clubs, players) as well as FIFA's commercial partners (Commercial Affiliates and Media Rights Licensees)," FIFA said in a statement. "As the event will not be played until eight years' time the consultation process will not be rushed and will be given the necessary time to consider all of the elements relevant for a decision."

The sense among FIFA officials was that Valcke's comments came completely out of the blue.

"I was totally surprised and shocked when I saw it," FIFA vice-president and executive committee member Jim Boyce said in a telephone interview. "But I think this was just picked up out of a casual conversation somewhere, someone expressing a personal opinion."

A final call on the 2022 schedule, Boyce added, isn't expected until the Executive Committee meeting of December 2014 or March 2015.

In bidding for the tournament, Qatar promised to deal with the conditions by installing state-of-the-art cooling systems in the World Cup venues, making fans and players as comfortable as shoppers in a mall. And in a statement released Wednesday afternoon, it reiterated that position. "We will be ready to host the World Cup regardless of the outcome," the statement read.

FIFPro, the global players' union, welcomed Valcke's comments. The organization has been extremely vocal in its opposition to a summer World Cup in Qatar, fearing that the high temperatures would put players in danger. "While it goes against a long-standing tradition to hold a World Cup between June and July, common sense looks set to prevail in relation to protecting the health and safety of the players," it said in a statement.

A shift away from spring or summer for the first time since the tournament began in 1930 could seriously impact the European soccer schedule, with the impact rippling out over three years.

Still, those scheduling conflicts could be worked around. Inconvenient as it may be, it's unlikely that any country would simply ignore the World Cup.

Far more significant is the issue of the broadcast agreements, which were negotiated under the assumption that the 2022 tournament would be in summer. In the U.S., for instance, Fox and Telemundo combined to bid at least $1 billion. The problem there with a fall or winter World Cup is the overlap with the NFL and college football seasons.

This is 8 years away, let's just admit that it's not happening and re-do the selection process. There has never been a positive headline - from the bribes, the weather, dubious labor practices and now the scheduling conflicts. Holding this in the winter would be an abject disaster...as big as the world cup is, the european club season is even bigger (financially, and that's all that ever really matters) and any winter play would completely destroy those seasons. Every international competition has always been held during the (Northern Hemisphere's) winter for this reason.

I wish FIFA would grow a pair and admit that this whole idea is a disaster. Whether it's using essentially, slave labor to build stadiums, the horrible climate, the possible problems for non Muslim spectators , or trying to disrupt the European Leagues, nothing about this whole thing is good.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.